


Ropes and falling

by belmanoir



Category: Kyle XY
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-01
Updated: 2012-04-01
Packaged: 2017-11-02 21:12:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/373394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belmanoir/pseuds/belmanoir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jessi has some issues with training.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ropes and falling

**Author's Note:**

> For Sonia, who (1) wanted Jessi training-PTSD fic, and (2) goes to IHOP with me.

"What is the point of lifting all this stuff?" Jessi demanded. "I can just lift it with my mind anyway."

Tom could feel his blood pressure rising. "We already did our telekinetics drills for today."

She snorted. "Raising a quarter by an inch five times isn't my idea of a drill."

"When you've done it every day for a month without side effects, I'll give you something heavier. I told you that."

She grumbled, but didn't outright rebel until he started them on the climbing wall. Kyle went first, reaching the top easily--Tom would need to build a harder wall soon, maybe one with gaps for jumping across--but when it was Jessi's turn, she wouldn't get in the harness. "I want Kyle to spot me," she said.

"Kyle is tired. Get in the harness." Kyle would kill himself before he'd let her fall. Tom knew that. He still felt better with his hands on the rope.

She glared. "I don't need a spotter anyway. I've jumped off plenty of things taller than this."

"Look, I'm training you, and I say--"

"Why should I listen to you? We don't need you to train us. You can't do any of the things we can do."

"I don't need superpowers to tell you to stop when your nose starts bleeding," he said flatly. 

"Jessi, Foss is here to make sure we don't get hurt," Kyle said.

For just a moment, her entire face seemed to tremble. Then she rounded on Kyle. "He's here to make sure _you_ don't get hurt. He doesn't care about me. He thinks I was a mistake, just like Latnok."

Tom stood frozen. What was he supposed to say to that?

"That's not true," Kyle insisted.

"Of course it is," she said scornfully. "He blew up Zzyzx with me inside to protect you. And when I jumped off the dam and you wanted to help me, he told you to leave me." She looked at Tom like maybe she wanted him to deny it. But he couldn't. It was true.

Her mouth tightened. "You're not very good at keeping people from getting hurt, anyway. You didn't protect Adam from getting shot, did you?"

"Jessi, that's enough!" Kyle said.

Tom couldn't speak. He could only watch her.

"You killed your own wife and daughter," she said viciously. "Why should I trust you to keep me safe?"

_"Jessi._ Foss, she doesn't--" 

"No, she's right," Tom said, the words digging their fingers into his throat as they climbed out of it. "She's got no reason to trust me."

Jessi stared at him for a moment, then whirled and ran out of the warehouse. Kyle shot Tom an agonized, apologetic look and chased after her. "Jessi, wait!"

Kyle would make sure she didn't do anything stupid. Tom went and slumped into his cot. Erica and Sara smiled at him from the wall, but he knew they hated him too. 

When he'd signed on to work for Baylin, this wasn't what he'd expected. Corporate espionage and occasional violence, that's what Baylin had told him. Not last defense against the world for Baylin and two children. And now Baylin was dead and he was still doing it, even though he wasn't being paid, even though no one wanted him to except maybe Kyle.

_You'll never break me,_ he'd told Taylor. But maybe he should have broken years ago. Maybe it would have been safer. Everyone he'd been responsible for was dead except for Kyle and Jessi. 

How was he supposed to watch out for her if she hated him?

###

His eyes opened. Shadows were lengthening on the floor and someone had made it to his bedside without waking him. They were good, then. He was glad the kids had left. He rolled to face them, one hand going for the gun under his pillow--

"I'm sorry," Jessi said, sounding resentful.

Jesus. He swung into a sitting position on the edge of the bed, rubbing his hand over his eyes. "What?"

"I shouldn't have said those things." Her eyes were on the floor. Looked like she hated apologies as much as he did.

"It was the truth."

She shrugged. "Sometimes I tell the truth to avoid telling the truth. People don't like the truth."

"No."

"I don't like taking orders. From anyone. I asked Kyle why he doesn't mind the Tragers bossing him around, and he said he trusts them to know what's best better than he does. But I just get mad."

People had given her a lot of orders. That bitch from Madacorp. Then Taylor. Then Sarah. A lot of people who told her they cared about her and they knew what was best. "If you don't feel safe around me, you should find someone else to train you. Just find someone." He felt itchy, thinking about it. Still, he could check out whoever she found, make sure they--

She looked up at him, finally. "I don't feel safe around anyone except Kyle."

He swallowed, gave her the edge of a smile. "Kyle's a good person to trust."

"So you're not mad at me?"

He shook his head.

She actually looked relieved. "Nicole says trust is a process."

He cleared his throat. "Yeah?"

"Kyle says there are programs for learning to trust people. With ropes and falling." At the expression on his face, the corner of her mouth curved. "I thought it sounded stupid too."

He chuckled. The sound was rusty.

"Would you do it if I wanted to?"

It was always satisfying when the smart thing to say was also true. Working with a couple of human polygraphs was complicated. "Yes." 

She smiled at him. "Nicole says the better you know someone, the better you can make an educated guess as to whether you can trust them."

"Okay." He folded his hands together. "We'll hold off on training for a while. Just promise me you won't try anything on your own."

For a moment she looked rebellious, but then she softened. "I promise." He didn't believe her for a second, but he realized, suddenly, that this wouldn't be as hard as he'd thought. She was dying to trust someone. "Are you going to keep training Kyle?" she asked.

"Of course."

"He'll get ahead of me."

He shrugged. She had twice Kyle's drive, and she'd been in the pod longer. A few months wouldn't make any difference. "You'll catch up." 

She beamed like he'd given her a Nobel Prize. "Still, I think we should speed up this getting to know each other thing, just in case."

He raised his eyebrows.

"When the Tragers want to spend quality time together, they make pancakes." She watched him carefully.

"All I have is a hotplate."

"And I hate cooking." She waited for several beats. "There's an IHOP not too far from here. They're serving pancakes with pumpkin in them now. I've never had pumpkin pancakes."

"You--you want me to take you for pancakes?"

"You want me to trust you, don't you?" Her eyes gleamed, like she thought she had him over a barrel. "It's not like you have anything better to do tonight."

_You could have just asked,_ he wanted to say, but he didn't. Neither of them could have just asked. He had to wait a couple seconds before his voice would come out steady. "You win. Let's go."


End file.
